Chemical-Weapons Watchdog Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Award Committee Chairman Emphasizes Disarmament in Pursuit of World Peace

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, was launched in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention, an arms-control treaty, took effect. Naftali Bendavid explains what the organization is and why it won. Photo: AP

Norway's Nobel Committee awarded the 2013 Peace Prize to the chemical-weapons watchdog that gained new prominence with its recent mandate to oversee the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal in the midst of a civil war.

The Netherlands-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was recognized by the committee for its efforts to eliminate chemical weapons and for its potential role as "an instrument for solving the Syrian crisis."

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Ahmet Üzümcü, the director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, speaks at a press conference in The Hague on Friday.
Zuma Press

The Nobel Committee appeared eager to head off criticism that it was making a symbolic show of support for an embattled player that hasn't proved its peacemaking ability in the Syrian crisis.

Committee Chairman Thorbjørn Jagland said the OPCW's work was directly in line with the will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who established the Nobel Prizes shortly before he died in 1896.

He said the OPCW had emerged as a candidate in April, before being drawn into the Syria situation, "so this is not a consequence of the recent use of chemical weapons in Syria."

The OPCW, established in 1997 following the Chemical Weapons Convention, has conducted thousands of inspections in dozens of countries, compiling an inventory of declared chemical weapons and verifying which stockpiles have been destroyed.

The OPCW's work in Syria, where it is carrying out a U.S.-Russian plan endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, takes its mandate to a new level in a climate where success hinges on factors well beyond the group's control.

Nobel Prize Winners

He also said the award could change at least one thing on the ground in Syria. "It will also boost the morale of staff who are working in very challenging conditions," he said.

The award comes as Syrian rebel groups appear determined to deny the government of President Bashar al-Assad any opportunity to regain legitimacy through the process of dismantling chemical weapons.

Some Syrian rebels and activists expressed skepticism and disappointment about the award, saying it was premature and the war was still raging.

"They won it for saving us from death?" said an activist in Aleppo, adding that Mr. Asaad's tactics reach far beyond chemical weapons. "They are using planes, trash cans filled with TNT, mortar fire and tanks. We're still being killed."

Syrian opposition figure Michel Kilo said the weapons inspectors were deserving, but said they should also be wary about trusting the Assad regime's declarations about its stockpiles.

"They have to be very careful. The regime certainly has hidden chemical weapons in undisclosed locations such as homes, small-weapons depots and even within small weapons being carried by army units," he said.

Syria's formal declaration of the details of its chemical-weapons arsenal is due by Oct. 27.

Mr. Jagland's Nobel Committee had come under fire following the appointments of several recent Peace Prize winners, including the European Union in 2012 and President Barack Obama in 2009.

Mr. Jagland, in a news conference in Oslo on Friday, appeared particularly sensitive to criticism of the 2009 award to Mr. Obama, praising the president's arms-control efforts.

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A screen grab from Syrian television on Oct. 8 claims to show an inspector of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons working at an undisclosed place in Syria.
EPA

With regard to the OPCW, he said: "The committee has from time to time returned to the theme of disarmament….We want to put a spotlight on the fact that we may be able to get rid of an entire category of weapons, but there is still work to be done."

Still, the committee made an unexpected pick. Malala Yousafzai, a 16-year-old education advocate in Pakistan who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban a year ago, had emerged as a popular favorite in the days leading up to the award. European lawmakers awarded Ms. Yousafzai their top human-rights award, the Sakharov Prize, on Thursday.

The OPCW's campaign in Syria was set out in a U.S.-Russian agreement following an Aug. 21 chemical attack near Damascus that the U.S. said killed more than 1,400 people. At the time, U.N. weapons inspectors were already in the Syrian capital preparing to investigate claims of earlier attacks.

The Norwegian Effect

Some past Peace Prizes

1964 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for civil-rights struggle is followed by passage of Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1983 Lech Walesa for his struggle in Communist Poland. Walesa won Poland's first direct elections in 1990.

1991 Aung San Suu Kyi. It took more than two decades until the Burmese activist was free to collect prize in person.

1996 For East Timor leaders against Indonesian occupation, which ends in 1999; statehood follows in 2002.

2000 South Korean President Kim Dae-jung for pursuing reconciliation with North Korea. His 'Sunshine' policy was abandoned by his successors.

Chemical weapons, including mustard gas, were first widely used in World War I, causing 90,000 deaths and more than 1 million casualties. Lethal chemicals were also in the Nazi program of racial extermination in World War II.

During the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviet Union maintained large stockpiles, but they were never used. Chemical armaments have been sporadically deployed since then, including by Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol outlawed the use of these weapons but not their possession. That was superseded by the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which requires signatories to destroy their chemical stockpiles. The OPCW was established as the body that implements the Convention.

A handful of countries have refused to sign the Convention, including Syria until the U.S.-Russian agreement was reached last month.

The OPCW says it has overseen the elimination of 82% of the world's declared stockpile of chemicals weapons so far, or 58,172 tons. It has also supervised the destruction of nearly 4.97 million munitions and containers.

Mr. Jagland noted that the U.S. and Russia haven't finished destroying their own chemical arsenals. "This is a reminder to those signatories of the convention that have the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons that they should speed up the work of getting rid of chemical weapons—especially as they are demanding that of others, for example Syria," he said.

U.S. officials said it would take another decade for them to finish destroying their chemical armaments, citing the dangers of the disposal process and the concerns of local communities that the work be done safely.

The State Department said the job of destroying U.S. and Russian chemical-weapons stockpiles is a "lengthy process."

"We and the Russians have both worked very hard together to destroy our existing stockpiles," said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman. "I think it's just a process that that we worked with the Russians on, and it takes time."

The west is dead against Taliban, and media had smartly whipped up the anti feeling worldwide. Whoever, especially Muslim, stands up to oppose Taliban in open becomes a hero in western eyes.Here comes a brave girl who has cheated death from Taliban gun, and thus propelled by the media to a great height, winning multiple high level human rights awards. She has yet to prove her real worth for the Nobel Peace Prize no matter how controversial this prize might have been. Not this time. (vzc1943)

Ooh...The same Global Politics for News share again ..The Same Firms created the Chemical weapons and sell across the world at exorbitant prices and now their subsidiaries are prohibiting other Firms and countries to create such technology so that the First Firm's Business can be unmatched ....how Aw-full ....& the Best Media Gimmick in this whole game of Prohibitions & Sanctions etc are the Loyalty rewards like Nobel peace prizes etc. to the subsidiaries who ensure the Sale of the same at Best Prices ..I should say ...Excellent business strategy & execution....

"Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons."should read"Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the FAILURE of this organization."

Once again, this committee's selections are all over the map. Like 0bama's previous "award", decided before he actually took office or did anything, this "prize" is given before the OPCW has completed it's task with regard to Syria, which is ostensibly what drives the OPCW's selection for the "prize".

Unlike other more reputable Nobel Prizes, the "Peace" category seems to be more about aspiration, hope, desire, longing, and wishful thinking. Sometimes extremely naive wishful thinking, lest we forget Algore, Jimmy Carter, and Yasser Arafat. And let's not leave out the pinnacle of wishful thinking, as already mentioned, which the 2009 committee wishes it could quietly take back. No such luck.

Preventing the spread of chemical weapons has very little to do with the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. It's more a problem for the superpowers to solve, which in most cases they put their national interest before public opinion. Like nuclear weapons, many countries including Russia, China and the US have a large stock of chemical weapons which may never be eliminated.

The panel could have earned a measure of redemption by awarding it to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, a more deserving candidate, for her heroism. At least they're consistent. Look for more since you can't fix stupid.

I would have given the Nobel Peace Prize to Vladimir Putin, to be shared with Pope Francis. They are the men most responsible for preventing war in Syria and ensuring that a diplomatic solution was followed, with chemical weapons destruction at the heart of the deal. If it wasn't for Putin and Francis, Obama would have launched a careless and unwise war against Syria which would most likely have resulted in the Islamic extremists coming to power in Damascus.

The Nobel Prize Committee once again proves that you don't have to DO anything to win their award. Just go along with their ideological bent and, voila, you get a big, fat check. Like Obama, this group has yet to do anything to merit anything let alone a Nobel Peace prize. I would suggest Alfred Nobel is rotating at a rapid rate in his grave.

So will the selection committee for the Nobel Peace Prize rescind their award after OPCW fails epically in their dismantling of chemical arms in Syria? Who will even know if they are successful? Who will know if ALL the chemical weapons were returned by the Syrian regime? We are trusting the Russians in this process? LOL

The US stockpile of chemical weapons is far smaller than you think. Putting political reasons aside, the maintenance of those stockpiles is vary costly and very dangerous. The US does use those small quantities to test and evaluate protective gear and sensors.

With the exception of a few sciences (like Physics and Chemistry) nobel prize has become essentially a VIP admittance ticket to the global socialist club, with all its branches: anti-capitalists, anti-success, anti-Semites, voodoo sciences (like global warming), tall, overweight mediocrity flying jets between presentations, etc..

You don't need to achieve anything. Just say yes to the socialist sermon. Or, "Yes, comrades".

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